Vayama Travel Blog

Can you Name at Least Five Prague Locations Featured on this Classic 1980’s Video from Australian Band Inxs?

Prague has Beauty in Excess By Max Milano (Travel Writer) *

In 1987 (when this classic Inxs video was shot) Prague was still behind the Iron contain, but Glasnost’s thaw was being felt across Eastern Europe. Western bands had just started to play gigs in the east and were just re-discovering the beauty of the place and its people. I was only a teenager when MTV put INXS’s video for their hit song “Never Tear us Apart’ into heavy rotation (yes, MTV used to play music videos back then) and I can still remember the excitement of the new when the images of this unnamed European city floated by in all its brooding wintry old word glory. Where was this gorgeous city of medieval streets, grand castles and a swan filled river?

Prague is It

Flash forward to a couple of years after the wall came down. Prague had become the new “Paris in the 1920’s”. The hip European city where every young American writer had to go to drink absinthe and grow a goatee. I was among that grungy New World contingent of ex pats hell bent on pounding the cobblestones of Wenceslas Square during the day and hitting Bohemian absinthe bars at night. Sure, we weren’t Hemingway or Fitzgerald, but we were happy to be there and to write our ‘kitchen prose and gutter rhymes’ while burning the candle at both ends at The Roxi or The Bunker. Some of us taught English to eager young Czechs just to make a few bucks and ever so often we heard about a (possibly mythical) young American living in Prague that got to write for a the likes of The Economist or Lonely Planet.

Prague Today

Prague today is words away from the heady days right after the wall came down. The young Americans have moved on, perhaps had kids and corporations moved in. But every so often You Tube serves up this beautiful video of Prague filmed right before the city became a magnet for dreamers and tourists. Fortunately all the beautiful locations shown on the video are still there, still beautiful, just waiting to be re-discovered by the next generation of ‘know it all’ kids. Have you booked your flight to Prague yet?

Fly to Prague for less with Vayama’s hot European deals

Prague Locations on the Inxs Video for “Never Tear us Apart”

Here is a list of the main Prague locations shown on the Inxs video. Lets see how many you can visit when you’re in Prague.

1-Prague’s Astronomical Clock

The centerpiece of Prague’s Old Town Square was originally built in 1401 and it’s the oldest still functioning astronomical clock in the word. Be there on the hour, every hour, to see the clock’s figurines do their dance, just like they’ve been doing for 600 years.

2-Old Town Square ( Staromestka Namesti)

Prague’s Old Town Square is the tourist epicenter of the city. Located between Wenceslas Square and the Charles Bridge, it’s a great place to start your Prague explorations. This wide open space gives a respite from Prague’s narrow cobblestoned streets. Tourists come every hour for the astronomical clock show. Come nighttime, you will find some of the best nightlife in Prague at the venerable Roxi, a word famous nightclub inside a dilapidated theatre, located in one corner of the square.

3-Vltava River

The Vltava River bends through Prague, dividing it and beautifying it with its swans and ducks and its 18 bridges, including the iconic Charles Bridge.

4-Charles Bridge

The most famous bridge in Prague and perhaps its most beautiful. It connects the old town with Prague Castle and was the only bridge in the city for hundreds of years. It’s decorated with baroque statues and protected by large bridge towers. Artists and musicians sell their wares along the bridge. The perfect place for an early evening stroll.

5-Old Jewish Cemetery

This has to be the most iconic cemetery in the world (sorry Pere La Chaise fans). The way the ancient tombstones stand crooked this way and that, gives the place an eerie sense of eternal peace. The little rocks with messages attached on them left by visitors atop the tombstones elevate the place with a powerful sense of community. Frank Kafka used to meditate here.

6-Prague Castle

Looming above Prague , in all its medieval glory, is Prague Castle (the largest castle in the world). It has been home to the Kings of Bohemia, Holy Roman Emperors and Czech presidents. It also houses the Crown Jewels and its patio offers the best views of Prague and its multiple spires.

7- Golden Lane

This steep medieval street steps down from Prague castle into the city. The quaint homes built against the castle walls now house tourist trinkets, but number 22 was once home to Frank Kafka and served as inspiration for his book “The Castle”.

* Max Milano is the Author of “The Mechanicals of Recoleta”. Available at Amazon.

Uncover the best fright sites of the world with these Halloween deals

By Florin R Ferrs (Europe travel expert)

For those of you who prefer Halloween to Christmas, here are a few destinations that celebrate the spirit of Halloween all year around and the best airfare deals to get there.

1- Edinburgh

Ancient Scots celebrated Halloween as the ancient Celtic festival of Samhuinn. The Celtic year began at that time, so this celebration was like Christmas and New Year’s combined.  Recapture some of that ancient Celt spirit at Edinburg’s Annual Samhuinn Festival and parade. Harry Potter fans can visit the Elephant House coffee shop, where JK Rolling wrote most of her first novel.  The Coffee shop offers wonderful views of Edinburgh Castle and Greyfriars Cemetery.

Fly to Edinburgh for less with this airfare deal from $681

Edinburgh's The Elephant House Coffee Shop

2- Paris

A visit to Paris’s Pere La Chaise cemetery for Halloween will get you up close to the  elaborate tombs of its illustrious guests, that include; Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaf, Chopin, Moliere, Balzac, Delacroix, Proust, Rossini, Modigliani, Lalique and many others. Finish off your Paris fright day with a visit to the catacombs and its collection of skulls and bones.

Fly to Paris for less with this scary cheap airfare deal from $667

Pere La Chaise Cemetary: It's Wilde!

3-Bucharest

Bucharest  is the gateway to Transylvania.  Do a Halloween pilgrimage to Bran Castle, one of several Transylvanian castles that inspired Bram Stoker’s Dracula and that may or may not have housed the infamous Vlad the Impaler  (the real life inspiration for Count Dracula). Transylvania offers many opportunities to celebrate the spirit of Halloween, with its fortified medieval churches, iconic cemeteries and wolf packs that howl in the night as they roam its snow capped mountains.

Fly to Bucharest for less from $727

Bran Castle Transylvania

4-Prague

Prague is a city of gothic spires, crowned by Prague Castle and its collection of spooky gargoyles. The old Jewish cemetery and its crooked tombstones is one of the most hauntingly beautiful in the world. Prague’s  Old New Synagogue is the oldest medieval synagogue in Europe, its attic is said to house the Golem of Prague; a man like creature created from clay that came violently alive during the 16^th century and went on a rampage that killed many, including its own maker (a medieval Frankenstein?)  In any case access to the Synagogue attic has been blocked, so there is no chance that the Golem will get out again. Right?

Fly to Prague for Halloween from $677

Prague: Old Jewish Cemetery

In rescue of a lost golden age of air travel.

By Florin R. Ferrs

We have all heard the classic tag line: They try harder. And this may or may not be true about the original company that used it, but in this day and age, when air travel has become a litany of indignities, from invasive body searches at the airport to rude flight attendants that insult the passengers over the PA, grab a can of beer and slide off into infamy on the emergency chute, it’s nice to know that there are still some airlines out there that care about customer service,  both in the air and on the ground. You know, they try harder.

WHERE CAN WE FIND AIRLINES THAT STILL CARE?

Unfortunately, you won’t find many airlines trying harder among the best known legacy carriers.  The tendency in the last decade among Legacy Carriers has been towards the lowest common denominator, from baggage fees, to charging for food.  Perhaps we have been at fault, these airlines seem to be trying to tell us. If  savvy travelers didn’t always use the tool available to find the best airfares, like vayama.com, they wouldn’t have to charge us for a blanket or a pillow.
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Of Hobbits and Hobbiton: A Visit to Middle Earth, New Zealand.

By Max Milano (Travel Writer)*

Having read Tolkien’s ‘The Lord of the Rings’ quite a few years before Peter Jackson’s movies came out, I always thought that ‘The Shire’ was located somewhere in that bit of British Midlands countryside visible from atop Warwick Castle.  And that is exactly what the scenery sorely lacked: A castle. At that point I would have settled for a village, a hamlet, a shed, anything that would break the monotony of the landscape. I’d been driving south from Auckland, deep into the rural heart of New Zealand’s north island, and for the last hour and a half, the scenery had consisted of rolling green hills dotted by white fluffy dots (sheep) and slightly larger black sports (cows).  Not a town, nor village, or gas station for miles, just a narrow country lane forever twisting itself around the sheep dotted hills. Traffic was so light that it was almost nonexistent, apart from the occasional big truck barreling down on the wrong side of the road. I had to remind myself that Kiwis drove on the left in order not to panic, but every truck that appeared on the opposite lane still looked like it was heading for a head on collision with my windscreen.

Someone had told me the night before that there were ten million sheep in New Zealand (down from twenty million). In fact New Zealand has more sheep than it has people and my drive down had proved the point beyond a shadow of a doubt; I’d seen plenty of sheep, but hardly any people.

My reason for waking at the crack of dawn and leaving my warm Auckland hotel bed in the middle of a Southern Winter was to find Middle Earth’s loveliest place; ‘The Shire’ (or at least Peter Jackson’s castle-less Kiwi version of it).

I finally entered a town (the first one for miles). A large sign greeted everyone with ‘Welcome to Hobbiton, Matamata, New Zealand’. A large stone goblin gargoyle stood next to it. I couldn’t make out which character from The Lord of the Rings it was. It could have been Golum, as it was hunched and looked slightly menacing, but the face was less round (perhaps the artist found inspiration in the books and not the movies).

Is that Golum? Matamata, New Zealand

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